El Alamo is a pop up shop / cafe brought to the Melbourne massiv by Argentinian Ignacio and Sicilian Andrea who are on a mission to bring the empanada to Melbourne.They describe the empanada as:"a pastry clad hot pocket, filled with fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Hand-carved beef slow cooked in red wine, fresh herbs and vegetables in a béchamel sauce, chicken, chorizo, fish (the list is endless) - all wrapped and baked in freshly rolled pastry crisped to perfection."

Faced with logistical challenges such as a retail shop front with no kitchen and all that comes with being a start up business, those little empanadas are truly a product that is not only filled with love, nurture and pipe dreams but blood, sweat and tears. They have set up a project:http://www.pozible.com/project/184063#descriptionto generate support to make this start up an ongoing possibility so if you believe in the empanada, do pledge your support to these two new entrants to the hospitality industry.So are the empanadas worth a pledge. We entered the airy and bright pop up shop on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Give the restrictions in the shop, there's licence, coffee machine or anything really permanent so the empanadas really have to do the the talking.And we had to wait a while as the orders piled in so there was an anticipated wait but the wait was worth it and these little pastries are delicious. We tried every flavour except the sweet and whilst the meat ones were delicious, funnily enough it was the veggie cheesy ones that were our favourites. Just wonderfully seasoned fillings and the chimichurri sauce with it's acidic tang and fragrant herbs enhanced those flavours. All hail the empanada!What was great to see too, although it added to our wait time, was the queue of people coming in to pick up takeaway empanadas and speaking native Spanish so these have to be authentic! And now having read more about this mission and the restrictive nature of the current set up, well utmost respect to Andrea and Ignacio for managing and succeeding through it and for wanting to continue to take over Melbourne!